Buck, Jeffrey A

Vino's side of the story (from cyclingnews.com) ---

Vinokourov: 'I never doped'

Vinokourov told the French sports daily L'Equipe in Wednesday's edition
that he had not cheated. "It's a mistake. I never doped, that's not the
way I see my profession," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "I think
it's a mistake in part due to my crash. I have spoken to the team
doctors who had a hypothesis that there was an enormous amount of blood
in my thighs, which could have led to my positive test."

Vinokourov claimed to be the victim of a "provocation." "It's been going
on for months and today they're managing to demolish me," he said. "The
setting up of our team made a lot of people jealous and now we're paying
the price. It's a shame to leave the Tour this way, but I don't want to
waste time in proving my innocence."

Vinokourov did manage a joke about his situation. "I heard that I made a
transfusion with my father's blood," Vinokourov said. "That's absurd, I
can tell you that with his blood, I would have tested positive for
vodka."

-----Original Message-----
From: obra-bounces@list.obra.org [mailto:obra-bounces@list.obra.org] On
Behalf Of Mike Murray
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 12:41 PM
To: obra@list.obra.org
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] Vino's reality:

Erik Long wrote:
"If he'd been "racing clean" all these years, riding in the environment
of
the doped-up super-peloton, he'd have been a mediocre domestique, at
best."

This statement considerably over estimates the benefits provided by
doping
practices. Doped or not doped a good rider will be a good rider and a
mediocre rider will be a mediocre rider. The doped rider MAY be a bit
faster than he would have been not doped but the difference is not the
same
as the difference between good and mediocre.

Mike Murray

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